Day 5 - The Tools of Making

Oh this one, is a fun one. Let’s see what makes the cut.

Like any creative, my tools change depending on what I’m creating. For this post I’ll focus on the writing works and digital artefacts aspects that keep the Realm turning.

My laptop is a 2017 MacBook Pro—faithful workhorse across the years, still going strong and not ready for retirement yet. She’s a great little machine. Lately I’ve been looking toward a newer model to handle the local-LLM experiments.


When the photography bug bites I reach for a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20, gifted from my Dad years ago. My old 2010 iMac still whirs in the corner of my desk; I use it to pull photos from the camera’s card and save them to an external drive for the MacBook. It’s the long way around, but worth it. There’s something deeper about seeing a scene through the Lumix’s viewfinder instead of phone screen—the click of dials, the feel of setting the shot manually. The weight of the camera in both hands and planting your feet on the ground just right. I’ve done several shoots using both phone and the camera, and while the phone wins on pixels, the Lumix wins on feel. Every time. 


Pen & notebook still hold their own. I use printed page more often than notebooks these days. Both have their place. I don’t have one “lucky” pen, yet I’m picky about which ones I buy—and about notebooks, of course. (That’s a telling for another day. )



A pink sparkly-arkly pen wrote until it could no more. An Eeyore topped pen now rides in the drink holder of my car, ready for school-pickup inspiration. My notebooks are a diverse crew: a butterfly covered Kmart find-for those car inspiration moments, a book store buy with gold page edgings-a crystal journal, a few Typo and Kikki.k treasures chosen for specific projects. Each one held its purpose before the first line was written.

Then there are stones and crystals that keep me company or guide the work while I write. Favourites: Black Obsidian, Rose Quartz and Clear Quartz. I have quite a collection, and the right one for the moment is always the one that grabs my attention first.


These are my tools of making—part practical, part magical, all mine.
What about you? When you create what do you reach for first? What everyday objects call when you create your myth?